Mr. Hengelmüller to Mr. Gresham.
Washington, May 1, 1895.
Mr. Secretary of State: According to information received by the Imperial and Royal ministry of the national defense at Vienna, [Page 9] Friedrich Hellebrand, who was born at Tattenik, Austria, in the year 1869, who emigrated to America in 1884, whose name was enrolled in the list of those subject to military duty in the parish to which he belonged, and who is now registered there as being illegally absent, recently returned to his native place and exhibited an American passport, declaring that he had become a citizen of the United States.
The imperial and royal ministry of the national defense therefore asks my mediation for the purpose of ascertaining whether Friedrich Hellebrand has really become a citizen of the United States, and whether he is consequently to be exempted from the performance of military duty, and from the consequences of the nonperformance thereof, in pursuance of Article I, paragraph 1,1 and Article II, final paragraph,2 of the treaty between Austria-Hungary and the United States of America which was concluded September 20, 1870.
I consequently have the honor, in pursuance of instructions received from my Government, to beg your excellency to be pleased to procure the necessary information in this case and to transmit the same to me returning at the same time the passport of the person aforesaid.
Accept, etc.,
- Citizens of the Austro-Hungary Monarchy who have resided in the United States of America uninterruptedly at least five years, and during such residence have become naturalized citizens of the United States, shall be held by the Government of Austria and Hungary to be American citizens, and shall be treated as such.↩
- On the other hand, a former citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy naturalized in the United States, who by or after his emigration has transgressed the legal provisions on military duty by any acts or omissions other than those above enumerated in the clauses numbered one, two, and three, can, on his return to his original country, neither be held subsequently to military service nor remain liable to trial and punishment for the nonfulfillment of his military duty.↩